Art, Not Apart Gave Canberra a Bit of a Shake Over The Weekend

Annual Canberra arts festival, Art, Not Apart, was on a mission to shake things up last weekend, with curators’ intent on challenging the norm.

Last year’s festival theme was ‘Patterns of Now’ and if that was aimed at finding connections between things through art, then this year was all about shattering those patterns with new, perspective-changing works.

Over 100 projects were pitched in response to the theme “Shake It Up” and on Saturday, March 18, audiences were exposed to music, art, film, and performances that pushed the boundaries.

Film and moving image curator Sam Dignand, said that his aim was to break the one-sided perception of cinema and engulf audiences with thoughtful, message-driven video.

“There are works that will throw you off, reel you in, enrapture you, comfort you and disarrange you from reality”, said Dignand.

‘Shake It Up’ is an appropriate theme to celebrate the fact that, as of this year, Art, Not Apart begins a four-year funding commitment from the ACT Government.

Marketing manager Michael Liu, said that it took years of lobbying and turn-downs to finally receive long-term funding.

“We made a social media plea on Facebook, and Andrew Barr responded that if he got in [as ACT Chief Minister again], that we’d get the money – and he did,” said Michael.

A key difference from last year’s event was that it was not held at Westside Village due to the announcement of its closure. Instead, the event moved onto the National Film and Sound Archive, which allowed for a larger audience capacity; as well as New Acton, where it has partly been held in previous years.

After an afternoon of looking at art, the fun didn’t stop as audiences  stuck around for after parties such as the yearly Sound and Fury exhibition that continued on until late.

Performance art curator, Chenoeh Miller, said that Sound and Fury is one of her greatest pleasures to direct over the last five years.

“Yes, it’s a party with two bars and great music all night, but unlike anything else you’ve ever seen – it is a platform of brilliant local performance art,” said Miller.

The day was met with raving reviews on social media, with people rating the day  5/5 stars.

By Ruby Becker